Not all the teams are created equal. Some are simply better, and those are the ones we’re interested in. Not just the best, The elite, and the elite of the elite. Spoiler alert, they’re no all from EU.
Our 3-0 teams this year were unsurprising, for once.
G2 were the obvious favorites to go 3-0, especially with their favorable bracket draw. How favorable you ask? Well, their first game was against TheMongolz, a team most of us had set as 0-3 in our pick **’em. They obviously beat them. Setting themselves up for a BO1 against CoL, who, as an NA team, was destined to lose because NA fans don't get to feel joy.
G2’s one and only BO3 then was against Apeks. In a pound-for-pound EU mix vs EU mix duel, it’s pretty tough to beat the star power G2 has. Map 1 of Anubis was sort of competitive with a 16-11 scoreline, but Inferno… not so much, sealing G2’s 3-0 spot.
Their lossless cohorts at ENCE had a different path. Instead of being allowed to beat 2 teams from the less competitive regions, they played a ladder of EU teams progressively getting harder.
Starting off with OG, the bottom of the EU barrel, gave ENCE a great shot of warming up into the major. So they did, and as they made relatively easy work of OG they flowed right through to their next game against NIP. Their opponents managed 15 rounds between them (6 and 9 respectively) showing just how dominant ENCE was.
That leaves the final step of the ladder, the best of the EU best. Unfortunately, G2 was occupied, so FaZe had to do. This is exactly what ENCE did, do FaZe. Map 1 might’ve gone the way of FaZe but that didn’t stop the EZ4ENCE machine Snappi created from walking right through the remaining two maps. So ENCE joined the elite at the top of the ladder looking down.
You might’ve noticed, we already mentioned all these teams. So we’ll keep it short. For all of these guys, their only hurdles were those who managed to go 3-0. The rest didn’t seem to be a challenge.
FaZe had a few close calls against Monte and PaiN but managed to hold firm until they faced ENCE. Instead of dropping their head though, they seemed revitalized against a tough FORZE to seal their 3-1.
Much like FaZe, Apeks only lost at their first BO3, unlike FaZe they did drop a map in their next BO3. The end result was the same though, they still beat a lively-looking PaiN. Closing out on a very good major showing from Apeks that includes a 16-0 dismantling of Grayhound as the cherry on top of their run.
Leaving NIP as our last elite team well, as elite as any team with Aleksib can be. NIP are another team blessed with a good run even if on paper it might not have seemed that way. Their first game against MOUZ seemed like a rough start. But in reality, MOUZ never got going at the major giving NIP a free run into OG (who they still went to OT against) and Grayhound who seem to be caught in the crossfire constantly. So, NIP closed it out and round up our 3-0 and 3-1 teams.
Now it’s these teams’ chance to prove they’re not just elite, but legendary.
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